Do you know what to do with your balance arm? Odds are, you’ve never given it a serious thought, because most amateur bowlers don’t think about how they’re using their balance arm when they go through the motions of their bowling stroke.

For many bowlers the opposite arm does what it wants, and it’s just there to make sure they don’t fall over when they release the ball. But in this lesson, we want to give you a few simple tips that will alter the way you think about your balance arm, and teach you how to make slight adjustments to your stroke to help you get the most out of it.

Paying attention to your balance arm

Despite common thinking, the opposite arm is good for more than just maintaining your footing. With slight changes to timing and placement, the balance arm can actually affect ball speed, rev rate and even the action your ball takes on the lane. With that idea in mind, bowling coaches Stephen Padilla and Hank Boomershine talk about some of the ways you can improve your bowling stroke by being a bit more mindful of what you do with your opposite arm.

The coaches explain why some of the best bowlers in the world focus so heavily on their balance arm, and cite a few examples of pros who gain much needed leverage by tinkering with their opposite arm. To demonstrate this concept, Hank shows you a simple trick you can use during training to pay closer attention to what you’re doing with your balance arm during your stroke. See how a little bit of added weight on the wrist can drastically affect the way you think about that opposite arm!